Tuesday, September 27, 2011

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Ksiva V'Chasima Tova. May we all be zoche this year to health, happiness, and the geulah very soon!

As the new year approaches, we all make our preparations for Rosh Hashanah. With the beautiful davening, festive meals and the fresh new year on our minds, this time is full of excitement and anticipation. Still, all these things are not the real purpose of this day.

If we stop and think for a few minutes, we might begin to think about what Rosh Hashanah actually means. Our automatic reaction is, Teshuvah! Rosh Hashanah is the day when we ask for forgiveness for our Aveiros and commit ourselves to serving Hashem and being better people. This is only half true. We begin the Teshuvah process on Rosh Hashanah but the actual teshuvah itself takes place on Yom Kippur. In fact, there is no mention of it anywhere in Rosh Hashanah davening! (There actually is one small mention of it in U’Nesaneh Tokef, but either way it’s definitely not the primary concern of the day.) So Teshuvah is not the answer.

The answer is that Rosh Hashanah is the celebration the of Hashem’s coronation as king over the whole world. Rosh Hashanah is the anniversary of the sixth day of creation when man was created. With creation of man, there was finally a being which could recognize Hashem as the creator; therefore, we consider that day as the when he became king. This is what we celebrate on this holy day, the day 5772 years ago when Hashem’s rule over the world was established. The same way we celebrate a human king’s coronation, we celebrate Hashem’s. For this we have a Yom Tov where we wear nice clothes, have big seudahs and all the other things that are done.

Still a question remains, even though we celebrate the anniversary of a human king’s coronation every year, this is because a human king must be cajoled, flattered, and in other ways given tribute to. However, Hashem is not human, while we serve Hashem, we don’t do it in order to stroke his ego. So why do we need Rosh Hashanah every year? We can celebrate it every few years just as a reminder to us who runs the world, is every year really necessary?

The reason must be that Hashem gives us Rosh Hashanah each year in order to help us. So what is it exactly that he is doing for us? As we mentioned before, one of the main activities we dedicate ourselves to at this time of year is Teshuvah, but truthfully, we can do Teshuvah all year round. There is no reason to wait to repent till the Aseres Yimei Teshuvah, at any time of the year Hashem is ready to accept Teshuvah. I feel that the advantage that we have on Rosh Hashanah is that the entire year is in front of us. If you decide to change your ways in the middle of the year, you only have a limited amount of time to take advantage of those changes, but at the beginning of the year, you can make it whatever you want to be! The possibilities are endless for what we want and who we want to be.

For me, this is the primary purpose of Rosh Hashanah. Before Rosh Hashanah begins, we have to sit down and introspect. We have to think about what we want in life, who we want to become, and what we need to get there. It can be anything, either something directly related to serving Hashem or something in our day to day lives. For example, we can ask for better concentration in davening or in studying for a test. On Rosh Hashanah we come before Hashem with this list of what we want, he looks it over and decides if we need it. If it will help us become better people and better Jews then he will grant it, if not then he won’t since it is not in our best interests. In order for us to better understand by ourselves if we truly need what we are asking for, a good idea to do whenever we think of what we need we must also think, ‘What will I do with this? How will this make me a better person?’ If we can answer that question, then there is no question Hashem will answer our Tefillos. However, if we will not do Teshuvah, then there is no reason for Hashem to consider our requests. If we haven’t done anything with the gifts Hashem has given us till now, then why should he listen to us when we ask for more things now?

That is the whole process of the Aseres Yimei Teshuvah, on Rosh Hashanah we ask for what we need, and for the next week until Yom Kippur we show Hashem that we are committed to becoming better and therefore deserve what we are asking for. What an opportunity this is! We can ask for literally anything we want from Hashem and as long as we can defend our requests it is ours! Maybe this will also help us understand a little better what Teshuvah means. Basically, the only thing preventing you from a full, happy, meaningful life is recognizing that the incredible gifts available to you can only come when you are ready to use them for the right reasons. Still, this is easier than it sounds.

Trying to think of everything you might want or need for the next year is a daunting task. Let me suggest one thing to daven for which will not only help you, but the entire Klal Yisrael as well. There is a very famous medrash which explains why the Torah begins with the word בראשית. The medrash explains that it is because of Yisrael and the Torah who are both called ראשית, “first”. Being first means that they are the closest to the source, Hashem, and they are therefore always the first to be noticed, mentioned, and taken into consideration. However, this is not a guarantee. The sefer Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh explains that on Rosh Hashanah, this is one of the things we are judged on. Did we make ourselves “ראשית”, did we bring ourselves up to be closer to the “source”? Did we act like we belong at the head of the line? The same thing is done for how we treated the Torah. Did we make the Torah “ראשית”? Was it the most important thing in our lives? Perhaps this is one thing we can think about on Rosh Hashanah, how we can live up to our title of “ראשית”.

As Rosh Hashanah approaches, we must be ready to take full advantage of this tremendous opportunity. When we stand in front of Hashem, it is our chance to ask for whatever we want! Innumerable possibilities are available to us at this time as the whole year is seen in perspective. In order to make sure our thoughts are in order, a little introspection is necessary beforehand. And once we know what we want, we must be ready to do Teshuvah in order to show Hashem that we will use his gifts to become the best people we can be. As the pasuk says, “לֹא נִפְלֵאת הִוא מִמְּךָ וְלֹא רְחֹקָה הִוא” “…it is not hidden from you and it is not far from you” (Devarim 30:11), Teshuvah is right here in front of us! As long as we want it we can come take it. We should all use this Rosh Hashanah to become the best Ovdei Hashem and the best “us” that we can be.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

With Rosh Hashanah right around the corner, we are all busy making our preparations for the new year. Chief amongst these preparations is Teshuvah, our main goal for the Aseres Yimei Teshuvah, where we look back at our actions of the past year and commit to changing our ways and so earn Hashem’s forgiveness for our sins. This seems straightforward, but if you think about it, it is difficult to process. It is unbelievable that with all of our past sins, whether ours from this past year or all the sins which have caused the Jewish People no amount of pain and anguish throughout history, they can be erased just like that! However, that is exactly what Teshuvah is.

Not by coincidence, the parshiyos of Nitzavim and Vayeilech, which discuss the concept of Teshuvah more than any other parshah, always come out in the weeks surrounding Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. One of the concepts discussed is this inconceivability of how Teshuvah is possible. The pesukim in Parshas Nitzavim say, “וְהָיָה כִי יָבֹאוּ עָלֶיךָ כָּל הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה הַבְּרָכָה וְהַקְּלָלָה אֲשֶׁר נָתַתִּי לְפָנֶיךָ וַהֲשֵׁבֹתָ אֶל לְבָבֶךָ בְּכָל הַגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר הִדִּיחֲךָ יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֱלֹהֶיךָ שָׁמָּה. וְשַׁבְתָּ עַד יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֱלֹהֶיךָ וְשָׁמַעְתָּ בְקֹלוֹ כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם אַתָּה וּבָנֶיךָ בְּכָל לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל נַפְשֶׁךָ.וְשָׁב יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶת שְׁבוּתְךָ וְרִחֲמֶךָ וְשָׁב וְקִבֶּצְךָ מִכָּל הָעַמִּים אֲשֶׁר הֱפִיצְךָ יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֱלֹהֶיךָ שָׁמָּה."“It will be that when all these things come upon you- the blessing and the curse…then you will take it to your heart among all the nations where Hashem, your God, has dispersed you; and you will return to Hashem…Then Hashem, your God, will return your captivity and have mercy upon you and He will gather you in from all the peoples to where Hashem, your God, has scattered you.”(30:1-3). The Kli Yakar points out that in Pasuk 1 it says, “אֲשֶׁר הִדִּיחֲךָ” “(among all the nations where Hashem) has dispersed you”. While in Pasuk 3, it says, “אֲשֶׁר הֱפִיצְךָ” “(He will gather you from all the peoples to where Hashem) has scattered you”. What is the difference in the language of these two words?

He explains that the word “הִדִּיחֲך” refers to being driven away from doing mitzvos, while the word “הֱפִיצְך” refers to being driven away from Eretz Yisrael. He then explains how to read these three pesukim. When the klalos (curses) start to take effect because of your sins, you will begin to think in your heart, “אֲשֶׁר הִדִּיחֲךָ יְ־הֹוָ־ה”, that Hashem has pushed you away not only from Eretz Yisrael, but from all the mitzvos. Why would you think this? Because of all the mitzvos associated with Eretz Yisrael. If Hashem has pushed us out of Eretz Yisrael, he must not want us to do mitzvos! Without mitzvos, we are completely lost with no way to come back! If only we could continue doing mitzvos and return to Eretz Yisrael! That’s when the pasuk tells us “וְשַׁבְתָּ עַד יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֱלֹהֶיךָ”, you will return to Hashem merely by having that thought in your heart that you want to come back. Even without doing any action, you are on the way back. This is the first step to Teshuvah, actually wanting to repent. Then Hashem tells us that what he really did was “הֱפִיצְך” he drove us away from Eretz Yisrael, which is the best place to do mitzvos. That was our punishment for sinning, not losing the opportunity to do mitzvos, but rather the ability to perform every single mitzvah, and while there are mitzvos that we can do, we still can’t do them in the place most suited for them. So even though Hashem wants us to do mitzvos outside of Eretz Yisrael, we must work to get back there in order to do them properly.

We see from here that Teshuvah isindeed a very real and simple concept. We must only make it our intention to repent and the whole thing takes off from there. The pasuk says clearly that all we need is to think in our hearts how great it would be to do mitzvos again and Hashem already puts us on the fast track to repentance. To further illustrate this point, the pasuk later says, “כִּי קָרוֹב אֵלֶיךָ הַדָּבָר מְאֹד בְּפִיךָ וּבִלְבָבְךָ לַעֲשֹׂתוֹ” “Rather, it is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to perform it.”(30:14). Some Commentaries say that this pasuk is talking about the Torah but the Ramban and others it is talking about Teshuvah. We see from this pasuk something amazing, not only is Teshuvah very close and easy to reach, the very words we need are already placed inside our mouths! And if you need even more proof to how possible it is, we have the Ramban in Pasuk 6 who explains, “וּמָל יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶת לְבָבְךָ” “Hashem will circumcise your heart”, the desire to do bad is like a foreskin on your heart. When a person shows his complete desire to do good, Hashem removes this foreskin like in circumcision, letting a person do mitzvos without being enticed to do Aveiros. This idea will only be complete in the times of Mashiach but we see from this pasuk that it also applies to a certain degree by Teshuvah.

One of my biggest regrets from these parshiyos as well as Parshas Haazinu is that since they come out during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the ideas found in them end up getting lost in the shuffle, especially what I consider a big part of these parshiyos, they are the last parshiyos where Moshe Rabbeinu is giving over Torah and Mussar to Bnei Yisrael. I would like to include a vort which we said last year from Parshas Vayeilech which is both about Teshuvah and also shows us how much we would miss Moshe after we went into Eretz Yisrael.

In the first pasuk in Parshas Vayeilech (31:1) it says, “וַיֵּלֶךְ מֹשֶׁה וַיְדַבֵּר אֶת הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה אֶל כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל” “Moshe went and spoke these words to all of Yisrael”. Rashi’s comments on this pasuk consist of a repeat of the first two words of the pasuk “וַיֵּלֶךְ מֹשֶׁה”, and that’s all. The first question is, where exactly did Moshe go? He was talking to the whole nation at the end of Nitzavim, so where did he go in-between Nitzavim and Vayeilech that the pasuk says he went? Secondly, what is Rashi trying to teach us by repeating the first two words of the pasuk with no extra comment? Lastly, the next pasuk says, “וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם בֶּן מֵאָה וְעֶשְׂרִים שָׁנָה אָנֹכִי הַיּוֹם לֹא אוּכַל עוֹד לָצֵאת וְלָבוֹא”“He said to them, I am 120 years old today; I can no longer go out and come in”(31:2). Rashi comments, what does it mean that he could no longer go out and in? It can’t mean that he was old, for the pasuk later in Vesos Habrachah says that until the day he died, Moshe did not lose any of his strength? It must mean that Hashem had taken away his authority as leader, passed it over to Yehoshua (Joshua), his successor, and Moshe no longer had the authority to come and go from Hashem as he pleased. The question is that these Rashis are written out of order. There are three comments on this pasuk from Rashi. This Rashi, which should be the second one out of the three on this pasuk, is the first one written! Why?

The answer is like this: at this point in his life, Moshe had nothing to worry about. He was one of the greatest people to ever live! He didn’t have to waste time running around rounding up Bnei Yisrael, he could very easily have blown the trumpets that signaled a meeting and everyone would have come! How come he went to gather everyone? Moshe was teaching us that we should constantly be moving. Always moving up, always moving forward. We have to be proactive in our quest to do teshuvah and become better people. Rashi teaches us this by focusing on the first two words in the pasuk which make all the difference to us, “וַיֵּלֶךְ מֹשֶׁה”. These words show us that Moshe was going around giving over his last lessons to everyone, since he knew he didn’t have too much time left. Rashi therefore puts the comment of why he couldn’t go in and out first to show us that Moshe knew he was about to die. Hashem had even stripped him of his leadership authority! So as quick as he could, he went around to teach as much as possible in his last few days. He still had the chance to make sure the Jewish people would keep the Torah and he took it.

May we use these next two weeks wisely, for Teshuvah, for Tefillah, for Tzedakah. Rosh Hashanah is almost here, let this be the year that the decree for Geulah is sealed.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

With many thanks and gratitude to Hashem, I am pleased to announce that with this week's Dvar Torah, we have officially been posting for a year! May Hashem allow us many more years to share words of Torah with all Klal Yisrael.

In this week’s parshah, Ki Savo, Bnei Yisrael arrive at Har Gerizim and Har Eval. These mountains were vital to the Bnei Yisrael’s acceptance of the Torah since its acceptance is done with both a brachah for when you keep it and a curse for when you do not. These two mountains were representative of this, Har Gerizim, of the blessings and Har Eval, of the curses. Half of the nation stood on each mountain while Shevet Levi read the blessings and curses down below. Following each blessing and curse, the whole nation answered “אָמֵן” to show their acceptance of it.

I would like to focus for now on the curses. A very enlightening drasha is learned out from the tenth curse. “אָרוּר מַכֵּה רֵעֵהוּ בַּסָּתֶר” “Cursed is the one who strikes his friend in secret…” (27:24). Rashi explains that this is in reference to Lashon Hara. Since your friend doesn’t know that you are harming him, the pasuk says that you are doing it in “secret”. However, the next part of Rashi is where we will focus. Rashi quotes from Rabbi Moshe Hadarshan that there are eleven curses listed here, one for each of the shevatim besides for Shevet Shimon. He explains that since in Parshas V’Zos Habrachah, when Moshe was blessing each shevet before he died, he did not bless Shimon, he did not want to say a curse for Shimon here along with everyone else.

There are a few questions which arise from this. First off, why would Rashi bring this down by the tenth curse? He should either bring it by the first one to tell me that the curses are represented by each shevet, or list it by the last one to explain to me why there were only eleven, but why by the tenth? And what is the connection between Shimon and Lashon Hara that Rashi brought this vort down here? Lastly, if you count the curses there are actually twelve! The curses are written in pesukim 15-26 with one curse in each pasuk, so Rabbi Moshe Hadarshan’s drasha does not even start!

The Sifsei Chachamim answers these questions with a complicated limud. He explains that if I read in the Torah the eleven curses without Rabbi Moshe Hadarshan’s explanation, I would have assumed that the shevet without the curse would be Shevet Reuven. Why? Because of the curse in pasuk 20, “אָרוּר שֹׁכֵב עִם אֵשֶׁת אָבִיו” “Cursed is the one who lies with his father’s wife…”. The pasuk in Parshas Vayishlach says that Reuven laid with Bilhah, one of his father’s wives (Bereishis 35:22). What actually happened was that Yaakov used to spend one night with each of his wives, always favoring Rachel over the rest. When she died, Yaakov started favoring Bilhah since she was Rachel’s maidservant. Reuven took this as an insult to his mother, Leah, who he felt should now take over as the main wife. So he moved Yaakov’s bed from Bilhah’s tent to Leah’s. For this act, he was punished by having the Torah compare this to his actually having laid with Bilhah. So if any of the tribes were going to be left out of the curses, it was Reuven. Therefore, we have to say that Shimon is actually the tribe left out.

So why did Rashi bring this explanation here as opposed to another pasuk? Because now that I see that there is a curse for someone who speaks Lashon Hara, there is another tribe I would suspect would be left out besides for Reuven. In Parshas Vayeishev, Yosef is said to have spoken Lashon Hara (37:2). So now I have reason to suspect two tribes, Reuven and Yosef, of being left out of the curses on Har Eval. So Rabbi Moshe Hadarshan tells me that really it is Shimon and he tells me by this pasuk specifically to show that it is not Yosef. The reason he feels the need to say it by the pasuk of Yosef’s sin rather than Reuven’s is because the pasuk of Lashon Hara could potentially be explained differently while Reuven’s pasuk cannot.

Still, if you count up the curses, there are twelve? So what is the question to begin with, none of the tribes were left out? The last curse is as follows, “אָרוּר אֲשֶׁר לֹא יָקִים אֶת דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת לַעֲשׂוֹת אוֹתָם” “Cursed is the one who will not uphold the words of this Torah, to perform them…” (27:26). The Sifsei Chachamim explains that this curse includes all the other curses that we listed. The reason we had to list all the curses instead of just this one is what Rabbi Moshe Hadarshan says, one curse was said for each tribe except for Shevet Shimon. Why? Since Moshe did not bless him at the end of his life, he did not want to curse him here.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Parshas Ki Seitzei introduces us to the heartwarming but puzzling mitzvah of שילוח הקן, sending away the mother bird. “כִּי יִקָּרֵא קַן צִפּוֹר לְפָנֶיךָ בַּדֶּרֶךְ…שַׁלֵּחַ תְּשַׁלַּח אֶת הָאֵם וְאֶת הַבָּנִים תִּקַּח לָךְ לְמַעַן יִיטַב לָךְ וְהַאֲרַכְתָּ יָמִים” “When a bird’s nest happens to be before you on the road…You shall surely send away the mother and take the young for yourself, so that it will be good for you and will prolong your days.” (22:6-7). By sending away the mother bird before removing the baby birds, the Torah is teaching us to be compassionate. The reward for this, the pasuk tells us, is long life. Interestingly, the Torah tells us that this is also the reward for honoring your parents. What is the connection between these two mitzvos that the pasuk specifically mentions that a person receives the same reward for each of them?

Rashi here gives an answer, “אם מצוה קלה שאין בה חסרון כיס, אמרה תורה למען ייטב לך והארכת ימים, קל וחומר למתן שכרן של מצות חמורות” “If for an easy mitzvah which is not expensive, the Torah said ‘It will be good for you and will prolong your days’, all the more so is the reward for a hard mitzvah”. The Musaf Rashi expounds on this idea that the pasuk is teaching you to treat easy mitzvos exactly the same as the hard ones, after all, we have no idea what the importance of each mitzvah is. That’s the lesson of this pasuk, that the easy mitzvah of שילוח הקן has the exact same reward as the difficult mitzvah of Honoring Your Parents.

The Kli Yakar wants to connect the two mitzvos intrinsically. The pasuk says that doing the mitzvah of כיבוד אב ואם (Honoring Your Parents) will be good for you (“לְמַעַן יִיטַב לָךְ”). What exactly is the good that you get besides for the reward of long life? He explains, how do children learn to respect their parents? From seeing their parents respecting their own parents. So we see that the good that will come from you honoring your parents is that in turn your kids will honor you. The pasuk here by שילוח הקן gives parents another opportunity to teach their kids to respect them. When the kids see how their parents respect and are sensitive to the needs of animal parents, they will learn to be respectful of their own parents, causing good to come to you as a result of this mitzvah!

He also explains the reason why you receive long life for these mitzvos as well. By honoring your parents, you show that they came before you, and they honor their parents because they came before them, and so on and so forth till the beginning of time when Hashem was alone in this universe. So by honoring our parents we are showing our belief that the whole world started from Hashem. The same is true by honoring animal parents. Therefore, I believe the reward is long life so you can continue to spread this message to future generations.

See the brilliance of Hashem’s Torah! So many important lessons and principles learned out from a simple mitzvah which doesn’t even make sense practically! This should only make us want to dig deeper to try and uncover more secrets of the Torah. Through uncovering these secrets, we will learn more about how to live and enjoy our lives. For doing mitzvos is truly, “לְמַעַן יִיטַב לָךְ”, so that it will be good for you.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

One of the most famous and most commonly discussed ideas in Halachah is the case of עדים זוממים, false witnesses. In shishi of this week’s parshah, the pasuk says, “וַעֲשִׂיתֶם לוֹ כַּאֲשֶׁר זָמַם לַעֲשׂוֹת לְאָחִיו” “You shall do to him as he conspired to do to his brother” (Devarim 19:19). The basic halachah of a false witness is that he receives the punishment which he testified that the other person should receive except where the defendant has already received the required punishment. As the pasuk says, “כַּאֲשֶׁר זָמַם” “as he conspired to do”, but not as he actually did, the Gemarah explains.

This curious idea is most often discussed by cases where the punishment is death. If the false witnesses are not brought to justice before the victim is killed, they are let off completely free. However, if they are caught before the punishment is carried out, they are put to death. This seems almost backwards! I would assume that we would kill the false witnesses regardless, but especially where they caused an innocent person to die?

The most common answer to this question is that when Beis Din sentences a person to death, we can only imagine what that person must do leading up to his final day. Seeing as this person is really a tzaddik being set up and not a rasha paying for his crimes, he must have spent his final days preparing in a holy and “Torahdic” manner. The teshuvah he does for his sins during that time must be a great kaparah (atonement) for himself. What a tremendous opportunity for this person in the face of such a tragedy! We don’t want those עדים זוממים to have that same opportunity. If we sentence them to die as well, they will also have those last few days to try and do teshuvah to get kaparah for their own sins. Therefore, we do not kill them as well. However, if we haven’t yet killed the man they testified against, we do kill them.

The Ramban brings two other answers. The first answer he brings is that when the second set of witnesses come and prove the first set of witnesses to be liars setting the victim, let’s call him Reuven, free, it was completely because of the zchus of Reuven that Hashem sent the second set to free him. Because Reuven was a tzaddik, Hashem did not allow him to be killed. Therefore, since these witnesses tried to kill a tzaddik, they are killed. However, if Reuven ends up being killed, it shows that he was really a rasha because otherwise Hashem would have saved him. We know this becausewe have a promise from Hashem that no one will be killed by Beis Din that was not already worthy of death (See Shemos 23:7). So we don’t kill the עדים because even though they did an aveirah and killed someone, Reuven was already sentenced to die from Hashem.

The second answer is similar to the first. Hashem has not only promised the defendants in Beis Din that they will not be punished for no reason, he has also promised Beis Din themselves that they will not condemn anyone who is not deserving! The judges who make up the Beis Din are all tremendous tzaddikim, so much so that they have been promised by Hashem that they will not make any mistakes in their judgment. It is because of this that pasuk 17 says “וְעָמְדוּ שְׁנֵי הָאֲנָשִׁים אֲשֶׁר לָהֶם הָרִיב לִפְנֵי יְ־הֹוָ־ה” “Then the two men who have the dispute shall stand before Hashem”, not only will they stand in front of the judges, but in front of Hashem himself! Hashem is by every court case watching over the judges making sure the innocent stay innocent and the guilty are punished.

How lucky are the judges to have this guarantee from Hashem that all their decisions will be right! Can you imagine what level a person has to be on in order to have this guarantee? Think about how much it would help each and every one of us if we knew that no matter what we did, it would come out the right thing in the end. Let us daven for the coming of Mashiach when Beis Din will once again sit in the entrances of our cities and we can witness this amazing brachah of Hashem’s watchful eye.